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Lucas Great King Street demolition

Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
Edit. The photos referred to are in post #36.

hi all. i cant see any other pics on the site of the demolision of lucas gt king st so i thought you may like to see these. they were taken in march 1994 by my brother H. dad used to work there in the 70s. he was the man in the security box. my aunt joyce purnell also worked there for about 30 years. and me and my brother used to go to the lucas christmas parties. wales.
 
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How sad it was to watch the destruction of this banner of Birmingham - and British - industry. What industry and manufacturing might have we now? It is to be hoped that there isn't another war soon as there is no ability to produce the necessary machinery to wage and win it in this country now.
 
Thank you for the pictures, Wales.
My sentiments exactly Lloyd; my grandfather used to call Birmingham the city of a thousand trades. My mother Sylvia Rose Fellows (nee Bayliss) worked at Lucas in the early 1960's. It helped put food on the table during a time when we lived in an old decrepit council house in Frankfurt Street.
I do worry about Great Britain and this country too (America). It seems as though we are becoming nothing more than a bunch of managers and service personnel. I fear a great awakening is in store for all of us.

Kevin Fellows (Project Manager)
 
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hi kev. as with Lloyd i agree with you. we know for sure that the housing conditions left a lot to be desired. i was born in paddington st. (a couple of streets from frankfort st) then moved to villa st when i was five. as i have said before on the site us kids (6 of us) never went without the main things in life(food clothes and love) and i for one grew up feeling safe and secure. its just sad that things have to change. best wishes wales.:)
 
Hi

remarkable pictures of the demolition of GKS.
The few years I worked there in those huge
Factories and Offices contained within this
vast site one would have never believed it was
all coming down.
I attach a few pics I have.
(Thanks to https://www.astonbrook-through-astonmanor.co.uk for the photos and also the photographer Stan Hussey)
Mike Jenks
 
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hi mike. brillient pics. thats just how i remember it. having lived round there all my life i must have walked past lucas thousands of times. i dont know how true this is but the story goes that the ground beneath lucas was contaminated and should never have been rebuilt on. if you go to the main lucas site and click on lucas history i have posted a couple of pics of artifacts that came out of GKS. just thought they may be of interest. wales. ps on your 1st pic to the left i think is a pub. cant recall which one. just off to find out. wales.
 
I have fond memories of this building. I lived very near in Defford Road (opposite Burbury Park) in the 1960's and went to Harry Lucas school. On one careless night, friends and I clambered up builders scaffolding to the top of the building - I must have been insane (oe perhaps young and foolish)? Thanks for the pictures. Keith
 
wales said:
ps on your 1st pic to the left i think is a pub. cant recall which one. just off to find out. wales.
Click to expand...

Did anyone find out the name of this pub. Would be very interested to know as looking at the picture it seems to be a the bottom of Burbury Street.
 
Hi All

Hopefully there will be a full gallery of the demolishion of king street in the near future
I have just received a load of pictures and I'm in the middle of scanning them in

I'm told the two pubs in the area are The Lord Byron and The Duke of Cambridge

I will get the photos on as soon as possible


Jackie
 
When i was in my teens the Lucas factory in Shirley was knocked down and guess what replaced it a shopping centre b&q etc.:sweat:
 
There was a St Geoge and Dragon at the corner of Gt King St and New John St West
but this is probably the Queens Head in Burbury Street
 
There was a third pub. The Queens Arms, by the directors entrance, corner of Bridge St West and Burbury St.
 
Hi Wales.
Thanks for sending those pictures, it reminds me of the fantastic book I've just reading "BRUM UNDAUNTED Birmingham during the blitz" by Karl Chinn.
Anybody who remembers the war and lived in Birmingham during these difficult times should read it, it is compulsiv readings
 
my pleasure ray. well not really. i wish it hadnt been demolished. i have made a note of chinnys book and will try and get a copy asap. wales.
 
It was the Queens Head corner of Burbury St Bridge St West.Atkinson's Brewery owned it I lived up a yard a little way down Burbury St. during the war we used to stay in bed while an air raid was on until a bell rang to tell the Lucas workers to go to the shelters. (and so did we)as the bombers were near Brum.. After the war Lucas.s sent a Xmas parcel to all the houses Turkey, Cake ,etc, it was said this was because of all the cars parked on both sides of the Burbury St making it difficult to cross the street .

Jean.
 
jean. thanks for letting us know it was the queen head and how nice to receive xmas parcels. i will try to find a better pic of the pub. wales.:)
 
Hi

Some photo's from our Estimating Group from
Great King Street.
Our Office was located in the M2 area of the Main
Office block. 1966 to 1970 was my era.
Grace one of the Office workers is leaving
to have her baby.
The other photo is our retirement group.
We meet evey year.

Mike Jenks
 
Hi All

We have been very lucky in being sent a magnificent collection of
The End of an Era
These photos are of Great King Streets final days and are worth having a look at
I have just started putting them on the site
www.lucasmemories.co.uk its going to take a few days to put them all on with the info, I will then be adding any other photo I have

Please have a gander and let me know what you think
I've been on and I have already found some mistakes but I'm not perfect

Please lets hear your view
 
wow jackie. what can i say. im gobsmacked. thank goodness someone had the foresight to take these pics. must admit on looking at them i shed a tear. especially when i saw dads little security box slowly dissapearing. these are truely amazing pics and i doubt we will see the likes again. cant wait for the rest to go on. many thanks to you and the person who donated them. wales.:)
 
The pub on corner of Burbury Street was The Queens Head. My husband Barrie lived at 21 Burbury street till 1967 if anyone knew him.
 
I worked at king st for 12 yrs and there were 2 pubs. One actually joined the building and was called The Lord Byron, the other was across the road and called The Duke of Cambridge.
 
Linda Millar said:
The pub on corner of Burbury Street was The Queens Head. My husband Barrie lived at 21 Burbury street till 1967 if anyone knew him.
Click to expand...
Hi Linda I lived back of 25 1941 -40 but my mom lived there umtil the house was demolished . I think Barrie must have lived at the bottom of our entry
Jean.(nee) Bramwell.
 
thank you Jackie for the wonderful memories. My memories of Lucas's is the clock, I lived in Berners Street and on occasions when the clock hadn't been winded on I would have to run to the bottom of the road to clock the time and then add a couple of minutes on and report back to my Mom, those were the days. Once again thank. Ycat
 
Hi Ycat
Talking about the Clock, I am the person that actually removed the Clock from Lucas's i worked for J.J.Gallagher and we carried out the Demolition work at Great King Street. The Clock was saved (by myself, and a mate named Dave Stead) and stored in a Council Heritage Store rooms, at the rear of Weston Road. The outside of it was Cast Iron and weighed around 3cwt each. One each side of the bridge walkway, but the actual workings inside were only tiny, compared to the Hands and Face. We spent a Saturday Morning taking it down and delivering it to The Council Heritage rooms. I also saved the Blue Plaque off the entrance wall. When we went in to start Demolition it was just like everyone had just got up and left. Everything was still intact. All the Desks, Chairs, Typewriters, etc, were salvaged by us and sold, It was a weird feeling, seeing everything still there as if waiting for Monday Morning to come, and the staff start work again, but knowing it was not going to happen.
Wal.
 
Dear Wal,
thank you for the informative information on the demolition work at Lucas's, Great King Street. Lucas's was such a beautiful building. In the past we knew the name of companies just by the buildings, they didn't need a sign, ie dunlops, Midland Bank, Barclays, they all had their own identity. Now what have we got perspex signs, all uniformed and no character. Are The Council Heritage Rooms available for the public to view relics of the past or just a dumping ground.
thank you once again for the information.
With kind regards
Sherrill
 
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